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An Elven arched raised bed garden in Gisborne

I’ve been recovering from an intensive two weeks making this (I’ll let the photos do most of the talking, but it is at my daughter Anna’s partner’s house on the hill. The doglet is our Poppy’s pup, Honey. She kept up a constant ‘throw the ball for me’ routine every evening when Anna came home. The cappuccino maker was good, and the weather mostly kind, though the heat and the drying out of fresh plaster was a problem). Overall I think it worked really well. I had to fly back before the scraping and carving was all done, and the sealing and painting. Marco is apparently doing all that as I write. Will upload photos of painted and planted gardens when i get them!

drawings were doodled on as progressed through

marked out with plaster of paris powder

cheap rebar man. prices varied a lot…

3 metres cubed of clean sand. Only used 2 roughly

used 40 0r so of these 25 kg bags cement, and 2 50m rolls chicken wire

folded chicken goes over the rebars

cutoff and bending jig for making the l shapes.

height jig. Help – marco’s daughter. that night she broke her hand – at a party, not on site!

sticking the rebar (6mm) – about 150mm into ground.

two 6mm rebars along top. Sewing needle from coathanger

we used black steel tie wires precut – sold in bundles, it’s better than bag ties ive come to think!

10mm rebar for arches, bent around barrel

6mth pregnant anna cooked lunch

drought victim or ball-chaser at play ?

other doglet is an older poodle, very sedate

Anna and her Marco

lots of weed matting… there may be a better way…

i folded and hand-bent – squished – 150mm wide roll of chickenwire around the arches.

constant need to redampen…

thin wire round the 6mm branches so plaster sticks

trying three lacing wires at once wound round..

Sika fibre, cemix plasticiser

scratched plaster for better key of next coat

whiter = dryer. also we used a sponge finish.

ah, the coffee… View out my window.

40 grit sanding of fresh plaster – for rounding etc it worked a bit better than scraper